Everything seems quiet on Ann Brooks’s suburban cul-de-sac. Despite her impending divorce, she’s created a happy home and her daughters are adjusting to the change. She feels lucky to be in a supportive community and confident that she can handle any other hardship that life may throw her way. But then, right before Thanksgiving, a crisis strikes that turns everybody’s world upside down. Suddenly … Suddenly her estranged husband is forced back onto her doorstep, bringing with him his beautiful graduate assistant. Trapped inside the house she once called home, confronted by challenges she never could have imagined, Ann must make life-or-death decisions in an environment where the simple act of opening a door to a neighbor could jeopardize all she holds dear.
The choices she makes will impact the lives of those around her irrevocably and linger in the reader’s memory in this marvelous first novel, written with authority, grace, and wisdom.
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This story parallels the pandemic we’re having right now. It is set around 2009 but the writer gives us a look at what could have been. Makes mask wearing and social distancing look like a piece of cake!
Slow read…great insight into characters and hard choices often pop up in life and the devastating effects they have on others around us.
Excellent story. Timely for the world in 2020. Loved the characters and their tenacity and the zeal of the human spirit to keep going.
I read this at a time when it was too close to true and almost didn’t continue reading, but I couldn’t stop. The characters are so realistic, the happenings, as I said, so close to today, it was scary. Very well written and I enjoyed reading it.
predictable.
I leaned a lot from this book!
Too close To current real life events
Reading this book while LIVING during a pandemic was quite realistic! Our situations sometimes overlapped. Great character building and storyline.
A great read and the reader could really see this happening with the COVID-19 pandemic right now. It gives the reader insight on how much worse things could be for us.
Very appropriate for the Covid-19 pandemic we are going through in 2020 and this book was written in 2012! Will make you want to be prepared and stocked if you have not already done so!
During this current pandemic, this story brought a lot of things we are going through to the forefront.
Not realizing that it was during a pandemic, I read this while on stay-at-home orders becuase of COVID-19. Makes you realize it could be worse!
I could not believe this book was published in 2010 because the subject is a pandemic! It is very true to what is occurring now in 2020. The characters were strong, with lots of human emotions. I looked forward to continuing my reading each day and found myself routing for this fragile family. Addresses ties of friendship, neighbors, family. A …
Really enjoyed it!
THE THINGS THAT KEEP US HERE was an entertaining book – I mean that in the widest sense because it was often very dark. I read it in a couple of long sittings and often found myself unwilling to put it down. Ms. Buckley does a great job of building believable characters in an apparently normal, although stressed, family situation. The tension …
It was different.
Very good book
This is a great story that describes how a pandemic affects everyone living in that time. It’s an eye opening description of the consequences to the infrastructure of our country (or any country), and the ramifications of this horrifying event on those wholive through it. I thought it was very realistic.
Great book
This book is not my normal book choice. It is one of those books that I’m not sure if I love it or hate it. It definitely was a page-turner for me.